It is well known that various mowing attachments can be towed behind a tractor. In most cases the mowing attachment comprises a gang mower defined by a plurality of rotary mower elements connected together in a frame arrangement which may or may not provide pivotal action between each rotary element and the others. Normally the gang mower is towed directly behind the tractor and this provides an effective cutting action on level ground where the mower can be simply pulled centrally and directly behind the tractor.
However it has been a long standing problem for providing an effective cutting action in a ditch to one side of a roadway.
In many cases the tractor driver simply drives the tractor in the ditch with the mower towed behind to provide a cutting action directly behind the tractor.
In some cases some degree of offset can be provided by moving the drawbar hitch of the tractor to one side since most tractors have the ability to allow the hitch to be moved to respective sides of the centre position. However this amount of offset is very limited and certainly does not allow the tractor to remain on level ground while the mower is in the ditch.
Specially designed equipment has therefore been provided for this function including sickle bars which are carried to one side of the tractor and a ditch swather in which a swathing assembly is mounted at the outer end of a frame unit towed behind the tractor with the ditch swather being pivotal about a horizontal axis along the direction of movement so that it can run on level ground or can pivot downwardly into a ditch. However these special devices are limited in application and relatively expensive.